I recently had the chance to watch a new documentary about the hookup culture by Denice Ann Evans called Spitting Game: The College Hook Up Culture. For starters, it’s nice to see a filmmaker examine this topic. There have been a string of great books on the topic in recent years, but not much in the way of other media. Like most of the recent books on the hookup culture, the film is mostly comprised of interviews with college students and recent alumni. One particular quote from a female student caught my attention, as it gets to the heart of just how prevalent the hookup culture can be on campus and the peer pressure that can go along with that:
“There’s peer pressure to hook up. If some of your girlfriends are going out and they’re hooking up with other people, they don’t want to feel like the slut or the whore. They want you to do it too so not only can you be empathetic…you’re on the same level. You have the same things to talk about.”
In an interesting twist, the film also features interviews with parents of college students. The differences between the parents answers and the student answers is probably the most eye-catching aspect of the film — they are clearly not on the same page in terms of the realities of campus life.